oVirt — For When You Need Full Virtualization and Kubernetes Just Isn’t It
Not everything can — or should — run in a container. Some setups need full-blown VMs, real storage domains, fencing, failover… the works. That’s where oVirt quietly holds its ground.
It’s not small, not particularly friendly on day one, and it definitely expects the admin to know what “self-hosted engine” actually means. But once it’s up? It behaves. Manages dozens of hypervisors, runs hundreds of virtual machines, and doesn’t fall apart when the SAN blinks.
oVirt grew out of the same roots as Red Hat Virtualization, and it shows — in both good and painful ways. Solid under pressure, but setup’s a bit old-school. Still, for many bare-metal shops, it’s the kind of platform that just keeps working.
So What Does It Actually Do?
| Feature | What It Feels Like in Real Use |
| Central Control Panel | Hosts, VMs, storage, networks — all in one browser UI. |
| Based on KVM + libvirt | Uses the same tech most Linux sysadmins already know. |
| Live Migration Works | Move VMs without downtime. Doesn’t complain if hardware isn’t identical. |
| HA and Fencing | Virtual machines restart when nodes die — with watchdogs and all. |
| Self-Hosted Engine | The controller runs inside the cluster — scary, but tidy. |
| Flexible Storage Domains | Mix iSCSI, NFS, Gluster, and even local disks in the same cluster. |
| Role-Based Access | Permissions down to VM level — backed by FreeIPA or plain LDAP. |
| Snapshot Support | Manual or scheduled — yes, including stateful rollback. |
| Templates and Pools | Clone VMs, assign to pools, boot desktops at scale. |
| Battle-Tested | Feels like a Linux admin’s idea of vCenter — minus the licensing lock. |
When It’s the Right Tool (and When It’s Not)
If the infrastructure is small, or you’re just looking for a couple of test VMs — oVirt is probably too much. But if:
– You’ve got real bare metal and want to put it to use properly,
– The cluster is expected to handle actual business workloads, not just hobby apps,
– You’ve outgrown Proxmox, or don’t trust VMware’s pricing model anymore,
– Storage and networking aren’t centralized yet, but need to be,
– Or there’s a mess of legacy virtual machines that still need attention…
Then yes, oVirt’s worth the effort. Especially if your team speaks RPM and doesn’t mind reading logs.
Installation: Less Instant, More Infrastructure
*Plan for a dedicated host, 16 GB+ RAM, FQDN ready, and storage. Preferably on AlmaLinux or RHEL clones.*
- Prep the Host
dnf install epel-release -y
dnf install ovirt-engine -y
- Run the Setup Wizard
engine-setup
It’ll ask a dozen things — from database backend to SSL certs. Read carefully. Once it finishes, it spins up the management web UI.
- Log In
https://<hostname>/ovirt-engine
Use the credentials you just created.
- Add a Host
Install ovirt-hosted-engine-setup on another machine. Approve it in the admin portal. Now you’ve got redundancy.
- Set Up Storage
Create data domains. Hook up iSCSI, NFS, Gluster, or whatever fits your storage layout.
Closing Note
oVirt’s not modern in the slick, trendy sense. There’s no YAML, no dashboards full of charts that fade in and out. But it works. Stably. Predictably. Sometimes boringly — and that’s a compliment.
If the goal is to run critical VMs without licensing drama, on infrastructure that’s already yours — oVirt makes a strong case. Just be ready for its quirks, and don’t expect quick wins on day one.
Once it’s stable, though? It’s rock solid. And kind of hard to give up.
